Flanders, Whitehouse now agree on Kavanaugh accusation
The accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape a 15-year-old girl as a drunken high school student has captured the beltway’s and the nation’s attention. Here in Rhode Island, it’s also shed some light on the campaign between Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat, and Bob Flanders, a Republican and himself a […]
Breakfast with Sheldon Whitehouse
You wouldn’t know it by watching him work the crowd waiting for a breakfast table in Newport, but Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s junior senator who is facing re-election this year, says he’s uncomfortable in the public spotlight. “In the world of people in politics, way shyer than average,” is how he described himself over breakfast […]
Bob Flanders doesn’t think community college is college
Republican Bob Flanders had some nice things to say about Bobby Nardolillo yesterday, his now-former opponent in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat who dropped out of the race yesterday. “He is a dedicated public servant with a bright future,” Flanders said of Nardolillo in a tweeted statement. Before Nardolillo dropped out, Flanders […]
Linc Chafee might primary Sheldon Whitehouse
Lincoln Chafee doesn’t want to be governor again after all. Instead, he wants his old Senate seat back. To get it, the Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat will have to best in a primary Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat who knocked him out of the Senate seat back in 2006 when Chafee was still a Republican. “I […]
Sam Bell declares for Paul Jabour’s Senate seat
Sam Bell is running for state Senate. The occasional RI Future contributor (and supporter) filed papers to run for the seat currently held by Sen Paul Jabour. The Providence Journal reports there could be a three-way Democratic primary for the seat. “We need to take on the fight to resist the Trump agenda right here […]
How the GOP tax plan would hurt Rhode Island
The Republican tax proposals would ill-serve Rhode Island in a variety of ways, said federal, state, and local officials who have been busy studying the copious and potentially crippling ramifications either the House or Senate bill could have on life in the Ocean State. The effects range from increased economic inequality, cuts to the social […]
Cienki, Corrigan, Dykeman are big donors to Flanders’ Senate campaign
As Bob Flanders was considering running for the Senate, he was also talking up his friend and former colleague Gayle Corrigan to East Greenwich Town Council President Sue Cienki. “Gayle was someone we did talk about, yes,” Flanders told me in June. “We talked about her skill set and what she can bring to the […]
Flanders announces in Central Falls, Dems say he profited off the struggling city
Bob Flanders announced his campaign for a US Senate seat today in Central Falls, where he was once the court-appointed receiver as the city went through bankruptcy. The Rhode Island Democratic Party responded by pointing out how much money Flanders made in that role. “There’s no question that the million dollars Robert Flanders and his deputies collected […]
Dawn Euer wins Senate seat, progressive caucus continues to grow
There will soon be one more progressive woman in the state Senate as Democrat Dawn Euer beat Republican Mike Smith in a special summer election to represent Jamestown and Newport as the senator from District 13. “Tonight’s win is a win for everyone who believes that we need to do more to create good paying […]
Progressives win big in Providence, Newport, Jamestown
It was a fruitful seven days for progressive Democrats in Rhode Island, with two big wins in the last two Democrat primaries. Last week Nirva LaFortune won in Ward 3, Providence City Council and this week Dawn Euer emerged victorious in Senate District 13 (Newport & Jamestown). These were excellent results for two good candidates […]
Sheldon says Sessions should explain to his committee why he wouldn’t comment on Trump conversations
Attorney General Jeff Sessions may have evaded answering questions about his conversations with President Donald Trump to the Senate Intelligence Committee. But in doing so he may have bought himself an opportunity to answer similar questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the latter committee. “His failure to answer […]
Bob Flanders voted for Trump, says ‘Muslim Ban’ will prevail at SCOTUS
Bob Flanders, the former state Supreme Court justice who is mulling running for Sheldon Whitehouse’s Senate seat, said he expects President Donald Trump’s so-called Muslim travel ban will prevail at the United States Supreme Court. “Whether you believe it is overly broad or too religiously focused, I would be surprised if they upheld the circuit […]
Senate President Ruggerio co-signed cannabis bill, but might not support it
When newly elected Senate President Dominick Ruggerio was the majority leader, he was the second Senate sponsor of the bill to legalize cannabis. “I believe that removing marijuana from the black market may make our communities safer,” he told the AP last year. But that doesn’t mean now that Ruggerio is Senate president that the […]
Senate bills would make RI national leader in sustainability, resiliency
Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed is introducing a suite of bills today designed to attract more green jobs to the state, educate more Rhode Islanders to work in green industries, lower consumer costs to switching to solar power and invests heavily in local agriculture, seafood and aquaculture.
Cathie Cool Rumsey will run against Elaine Morgan
Catherine Cool Rumsey, a former District 34 state senator who was defeated by embattled Sen Elaine Morgan in 2014, was “horrified” by Morgan’s infamous email besmirching Islam was “horrified” and said it solidified her intention to run against Morgan in 2016. “It does not represent the district,” she told me. “We need to represent our […]
Highway protest bill represses free speech, discourages activism
A bill being considered by the state Senate would make interfering with traffic on a street, sidewalk, or highway, a felony. A felony, we should remember, carries minimum prison sentences, and directly or indirectly disenfranchises people for life. The bill, introduced in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation this […]
Senate Economic Summit focuses on education, workforce development
The state Senate’s annual Economic Summit this year focuses on “connecting workforce and higher education,” and is being held Wednsday, 5 to 7:30pm, at Rhode Island College, says a State House press release. “Business leaders have spoken of the difficulty finding workers with the skills needed to fill job vacancies,” the press release says, “and […]
Sheldon, progressive senators oppose free trade deals like TPP
Have you heard about the Trans Pacific Partnership yet? If not, that’s exactly what the corporate interests – like big pharma and Wall Street – who wrote this trade deal were hoping. The TPP would be the largest such multinational pact ever and it’s been crafted entirely in secret. “It’s a trojan horse in the […]
Obama’s budget bill borrows from Sheldon’s progressive tax trifecta
Two of the three tenants of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s progressive tax trifecta are including in President Obama’s much ballyhooed budget proposal released today. “In addition to the Buffett Rule the President’s budget also contains some pieces from Senator Whitehouse’s Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act,” said Whitehouse spokesman Seth Larson. Whitehouse is long the sponsor of […]
US Senate says: ‘climate change is real and not a hoax’
The United States Senate is now on record, 98 to 1, that “climate change is real and not a hoax.” That’s the language of an amendment Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse squeezed into a bill on the Keystone Pipeline, which was overwhelmingly approved – and even co-sponsored by Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe. No small feet, […]
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